In recent years, transportation methods have changed substantially. This change is due in part to a concern over the limited availability of natural resources, a proliferation in personal technology, and a societal shift to adopt more environmentally friendly transportation solutions. These considerations have encouraged the development of a number of new flexible-fuel vehicles, hybrid-electric vehicles, and electric vehicles. Further, the considerations have encouraged the development of self-driving or autonomous vehicles.
Modern vehicles are also generally able to provide an internal alert to a vehicle operator when a door of the vehicle is open or not fully closed. This internal alert may be presented as an illuminated portion of a dash display (which, in some cases, may even identify the location of the open door to an occupant of the vehicle) and/or an audible alert, for example, a chime broadcast from the vehicle speakers. While warning occupants inside a vehicle cabin is important for their safety, it is equally important to let those outside of the vehicle know that one or more of the occupants inside the vehicle may be stepping out of, or otherwise exiting, the vehicle.
Currently, only when a vehicle door is physically opened a specific amount (in some angular range) do any number of lights and/or reflectors in the door become visible to those outside of the vehicle. By the time these lights or reflectors are visible, an occupant may already be exiting the vehicle, or the door may be impinging on the travel of someone or something outside the vehicle. As can be appreciated, these lights and/or reflectors in the door may not serve to sufficiently notify users of other vehicles (e.g., outside of the vehicle) of the potential exit of an occupant from the vehicle (e.g., emergency exit, exiting into a traffic path, etc.) until it is too late for the other vehicles to take evasive action and avoid injuring or hitting the occupant.